First take $1K and:
- Join your local REIA, attend regularly and talk to the people there (~$150 - $200/year)
- Take some friendly local investors out to lunch/dinner/drinks ($50 per "date")
- Buy some good RE investing books ($5 - $20 each, used or new)
- Pick up a few well-regarded guru courses used on Ebay ($100 - $200 each)
That will give you big head start without having to throw $25K at something that may or may not be what you're looking for.
I think the main objection you are seeing to what seem like high prices for REI education and mentorship is that it is sold to people who often can't judge its value. They can't know what they don't know. Just like when someone hears that they need a new transmission for a Honda Civic, and believe the mechanic who says it can't be done for the less than $8K. So, some may think $25K is a better REI course or mentorship than a $2500 course based on it's high cost and all the doo-dads and things that are included. Stupid but true.
$25K could be a great value. I mean that seriously. But I'd like to hear from someone who feels that way after paying it and putting what they learned to work.
BE A JUDGE OF VALUE!
This is the root of the issue: The people that cannot discern value, pay ridiculous amounts of money. Those that can... would never pay this price.
These non discerning "investors" are the same people who buy marginal "deals" and over rehab, under budget, and never make a dime. They are charmed by the vices of the greedy men, i mean gurus. (Can't say I blame the gurus though. It's getting a lot harder to find a deal these days, than a dummy.)
Sure they tout the token "investors" that fall into a deal or two. Even blind monkey's find bananas.
These hopeful "investors" spend all their money on a dream. (No discernment.) There should probably be more restrictions/qualifications put on these type of "investors" than trust deed investors by SB 978 (but that's another discussion)
This is exactly the reason these "investors"/people try this type of business and fail. They think you can just buy success or a blue print for success. NO SECRETS can be bought that can replace hard work.
My point is that if you only have $25,000 to your name. It should be illegal for you to put it into a Coach/Mentor's pocket. Focus on putting it into a transaction instead.
Finally, If you spend more time here on BP and less on the GURU hype, most of these "secrets" of real estate investing will reveal themselves for free.
PS there are no secrets, shhhh don't tell just for BP members only;)
I would always be weary of programs. In my experience, they generally try to up sell you to the next program (sounds like during the 3 day seminar, that is exactly what they did if you are considering buying their next program).
I would recommend taking your $25k and invest it in a property.
An “investment” in a program has a zero percent return on investment, it is just an expense to your real estate business and does not increase the assets on your balance sheet or provide income on your income statement. Education is always a cost (unless you are selling the education like the programs do).
However, if you buy right, an investment in a property can have a substantial ROI and add an asset to your balance sheet and income on your income statement. With the right tools and network, an investment in a property will take you further than a program, but that is just my opinion and experience. Working deals and studying real estate (not a buying a program) teaches more.
Want a better return? Once that money is gone it is gone. Let any one of the the moderators on here partner on a deal with you. Learn from someone with experience. They can coach and teach you. You can learn by doing. That, or you can save your money and keep learning here. We have no problem here helping to answer questions.
First I can't stand when people come here and tout off on these programs like they're the bees knees and they're the best thing since slice bread and that these programs will make anyone money but they never done a deal. On top of that they want you to join up like some shill expect you to pay for a pipe dream that will never happen. It's the proverbial "cart before the horse".
Now that's not saying that real estate education is worthless but you have to watch out for stuff like this because there is just too much scamming going on. To many predators praying on the desperate.
By the way education or not if you don't get any value out of anything then regardless if you shell out $25 or $25,000 you just wasted money because there wasn't any value on what you spent due to no effort or whatnot.
Sam Craven Thank you SO much for your post. Your experience answered exactly what I'm curious about. And you were able to say how it worked for you and your Dad and what the resulting deals have been. Thank you for your honesty about the motivational bs and "the smell of the guru". Pretty funny. But it was obviously worth suffering through!
David Brown Thanks for sharing your experience with FB. You say that you are appreciative of your new understanding of relationships and community. But there's no where in your post where you say how FB has contributed to your ability to make deals and profit from them. You might be evaluating the value of the FB differently than me, but has it helped you meet any concrete REI goals?
Well, guess what..... This FB bunch will be here giving thier free seminars. I'll bet there is absolutely nothing given out except hype, testimonials, deals done and how life will be different. They saw if you attend you receive two books as well, probably the hitch would be attend and sign up.
Just wondering, should I not attend, attend and be wannabe investor or attend and loaded for bear? Last time was a guru on notes and I think I got more cards/numbers than the guru did in the parking lot.... :)
Bill you forgot the most important thing. THE UPSELL!
I'm brand new to this business and I went to this three day summit, it was very informative, motivating and showed me I have a lot to learn! I didn't think $25K was a lot to pay for a business model, education and basically an already made business, which is what they are selling, if it is all that they tout it to be. After finding BP, however, I'm going to give it some thought before I plunk down that money and see what I can learn on my own and through my connections. It's not like they finance the money, like a traditional education lets you do.
Dawn Hough Well, you made your first intelligent decision in your real estate investing career! Smart move. Welcome to BP. Maybe you can upload a pic of yourself. Also, you might want to go to the New Members forum and introduce yourself. Good to see you jumping right in!
Well said.
This is my first post to this site. I was searching for information about FB and its legitimacy. I just finished attending the 3 day seminar in Charleston, SC and I must say I was impressed with the overall results. For $197 it well exceeded my expectations. I have dabbled in RE for a few years as a maintain a successful career in the IT industry as a Program Manager. I have always wanted to secure my financial future with REI. For me I feel like the time is NOW more than any other time. I have capital, motivation, entrepreneur heart, construction knowledge and systems knowledge. I want to take my experiences and accelerate them into REI as soon as possible with as much packaged, lessons learned, and don't recreate the wheel mentalities as possible.
A few things about the FB Mastery offer concerns me. When they say you must be accepted first and then you have to pay $25K for the Platinum Level it seemed fishy. I understand how a business would want to filter out certain people and make sure they get the right caliber of people to protect their brand but it did not seem that during the interview process and the amount of people they had to interview there was much in regards to the filtering criteria. I was sitting by a gentlemen that I had been speaking with for all 3 days and I knew he was out of his league for being there, but they offered him the Mastery program. He told me he had no way of coming up with that kind of money but he was going to try and increase his CC credit and ask his friends for loans until he could get his first deal. In my opinion he was a great guy with high expectations but I did not see that he was high octane and had the resources to be able to be successful at this time, and would have a good chance of failing after spending that kind of money, MY OPINION. Another thing that made me stop and think is that I am a person that never makes a decision on any deal that requires you to act on it within the same day or next day when it comes to things of this nature. If the offer is good today it should be good tomorrow in most situations like this. Don't get me wrong I understand the power and need of being able to make a quick educated decision on business deals that might only present itself within a short period of time and in a competitive market you have to act swiftly to acquire the service or asset or it will go to someone else but this is not the case. So with that being said that tactic for the Mastery program made me think twice on signing up for it.
HOWEVER, I do feel the Mastery program would benefit me but I do not like the $25K price tag. I can easily afford it but as many on BP have stated there are other resources that can be tapped into. BUT, Now that I have seen other posts the price actually might be negotiable and I could be getting a follow up call that they might be willing to offer a lessor amount, who knows.
I am in the IT industry and I am fully aware of the value of automation and the time and money it takes to create a system as what they were showing and describing. If it does what they say it can do it would be well worth the 25K just for the software tools to manage different aspects of your REI business. Marketing, CRM, Campaign strategies, legal documents, cost estimation tools and many more useful automated tools that can easily can auto responses and create canned documents for your buyers, sellers, and contractors. I believe that presents great value. My compnay has spent a lot more money on retail and developed business automation tools that had less features.
As another post mentioned:
From FortuneBuilder's web site:
"FBflow is FortuneBuilders' version of Real flow Investor - it's the same database, with additional squeeze pages, auto-responders, and documents exclusive to FortuneBuilders."that the FB tools are the Realeflow
The Mastery program grants you free access to the FB web site for life which has the features of the Realeflow RE tools. Their packages start at $200/month up to $999/month. With FB it seems you are getting something along these lines for life. Please someone correct me if I am wrong.
The final point I would like to make is about the value of the program and the cost of $25K. Most of the critics in regards to the amount in my opinion are not seeing the big picture as I interpreted it from the presentation at the seminar of what FB is saying you are getting. The boot camps alone would be worth a significant value. No matter who taught these types of programs someone is going to charge you something. If you valued the classes at $1K per class that would be $5K which I would assume would be a great value based off what I just went through in the 3 day class especially since this class I think was meant to give you overview of many areas and try to sell you the mastery program and FB. Once you are in and take the Boot Camps I hear they get more into the weeds and even better lessons learned and "NINJA" techniques that would help you become seasoned quicker in my mine. As stated before I feel things such as the canned Marketing and Acquisition approaches could be very valuable tools that even other RE tools out there charge you significant fees for.
I think some have to put it into perspective and not say it does not have any value. If anyone one of you that has been doing REI for a long period of time decided to put all of your lessons learned and tips down on paper that took you years to master and created many stumbling blocks and lost time and money, don't you think just a hand full of those would compound into an extreme amount of savings for someone else. I realize that people on BP are providing some free advice and the option of finding local mentors helps but that takes a lot of leg work and time and its not there at your finger tips right from the start.
I am still thinking about pursueing the Mastery Program. If anyone can give me some better pointers on REI automation tools that are out there for free or at low costs I would appreciate it.
Please don't slam me too hard....:) Just wanted to way in.
I don't think anyone has said it doesn't have any value. What many have said is that they don't believe it has anywhere near $25K in value (or whatever they charge). If you're willing to spend $25K, why not just go do your first deal -- you'll almost certainly learn more doing an actual deal than you will from a seminar or course, and it's pretty tough to lose $25K on a low-priced flip.
Absolutely. You can find many of those lessons and tips here on BP, all for free. Several of us have written books that you can buy for $20 or less. You seem to believe that a big price tag equals valuable information while a small price tag equals less value.
Spend a few weeks here on BP and you may change your mind...
My thoughts. I choose my words carefully. I personally know real estate investors that are Mastery students. They attend the same REIA that I do. I am not a Mastery student, I simply do not have $25k to invest in their education.
In the past, I have invested in training, coaching and seminars with little success but I blame myself mostly because I would spend all the money on training, seminars and coaching and have no money left to spend on marketing, establishing the proper legal entity, getting an attorney, etc...
Now I spend my time working with seasoned real estate investors and spending more time and money on marketing.
The systems, tools and automation that Fortune Builders have in place, from what I understand could/might/maybe help the real estate investor be more efficient with their time. I like that. With that said, there are many real estate products that the real estate investor can buy and implement in their business that can help with automation and free up time to concentrate on other areas of their business. Even with all these tools, automation and systems that are available, the business still will not completely run itself, at least not initially, maybe after some time of being established, the business could run itself, once it is build up with the proper team players. I like the idea of systems and I have begun to implement my own, for better or worse.
I have invested in online database systems to help find sellers and buyers. But I still have to access the database systems, take the leads, market to the leads and follow up. The database systems are just a tool that helps me with leads for my marketing. After a few deals, I plan to hire and train others to do the marketing. I beleive in a plan, it is vital, it is needed to help with focus. To craft a business map and this map must not be static but dynamic, able to evolve and adapt to the ever changing market. Evaluate, adjust, implement, process, repeat.
I just rebooted my real estate business and I am in the process of setting up my team of professionals to help with the areas I am not to proficient with. For now I must wear all hats, well most hats, with the exception of my attorney and real estate agent colleague, I am doing all the legwork until I can build the rest of my team.
I cannot comment on the value of the FB program or software. But I just salivate at the idea of what I could do with $25,000 in marketing to find motivated sellers. =)
P.S. I know one successful wholesaler that runs his entire business with Google Docs.
P.S.S. Best investment I've personally made in RE Investing education:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbook/
Keri I too went to a three day seminar. We did due diligence before we went and tried to find out as much as possible about them. (Had a hard time finding reviews). We decided to go into the bronze Mastery program for a total cost of nearly $15,000. We left all amped out and excited. Later in the evening that we got home i again tried to find reviews especially negative ones to see what we were in for. There were a few reviews that caught my attention and then were later retracted and practically praising fortune Builders. This actually made me feel a little ill at ease, like maybe they were coerced into writing a retraction. I terminated my contract the very next morning and cancelled my check. That is when the fun started. I went through their exit interview where they tried to sell me on the program at a cheaper price. I just answered all their questions with I decline to answer that. They told me I needed to sign 2 papers that they will email me to refund and cancel my contract. First one I had to sign was a request for refund. On that document they state This is a request for refund not an approval. Therefore you are not guaranteed any refund (even though they say they have a 14 day refund policy with some conditions which I could write a whole reply just on that). The second paper they sent me was a mutual non-disparagement / confidentiality / liquidated damages document. Which seems hardly to a mutual benefit. The document simply put, says that (if you sign it and if you want them to consider refunding your money you must sign it) you may not disparage or criticize them, their program, their employees, agents etc.. or otherwise say or do anything that could disrupt their business. (now this brings into focus about reviews of companies. Reviews are critiques or criticism) therefore people who have signed this Can not give feedback or reviews without FEAR of penalty. The Confidentiality Clause (if you sign it) states you cannot disclose if you received your money back, how much of it you received and even if you do not receive money back. Firstly I would like to state that this in my opinion is bullying and coercion making me give away my Constitutional Rights of Free Speech and Freedom of Press. This does not allow people to do due diligence in researching this company. Now the third part of this document (if signed) is Liquidated Damages Clause that states for every violation in the Non-disparagement and confidentiality clauses there will be $5,000 per violation. None of this benefits you therefore it is not mutual. it is in my opinion a way to bully or coerce people into not saying or printing the truth. That right there may give you pause and make you think twice.
Also Fortune Builders may be on the Inc. Magazine top 500 fastest growing companies, but think it is Fortune Builders, not CT homes(the flipping business) that seems to be making the money.If I was bringing in $15,000 to $25,000 times 100 people on average per event I would be damn wealthy too. When they use A&E Flip this House and CT Homes and combine it with Fortune Builders (a separate company) remember it is a marketing ploy to enhance the image that you too can be Inc. 500 next business.
I cannot say if the program works or not. I don't feel you can do due diligence in researching this company. So Buyer Beware. There are good coaches and other programs find one that fits your budget without hurting your life or lifestyle.
Monique Walker thank you for your post. I personally think that spending $25,000 or even $15,000 on any "guru" program is ridiculous.
Here are some points to consider:
1. Watch their show. The quality of the final renovation/rehab is horrendous. It seems to me that they couldn't make it big flipping houses, so they have resorted to peddling this dream of financial freedom. The horrid colors that they pick alone should make you run away. Everything they did was utter crap.
2. There aren't many negative reviews because they make you sign all these forms that prevent you from ever making negative reviews or get sued. Nice set up they have. Majorly shady. If it was such a solid product, they wouldn't make everyone sign non-disclosure documents. This fact alone speaks volumes on their integrity.
@J Scott, Thanks for the advice. I have been reading more on BP and I can see how this site can be invaluable. I am very excited to become a true REI but I must pause and make sure I utilize my resources the best way possible. I will continue to educate myself and look forward to be able contribute to BP in the future.
I have to admit attending the FB 3 day seminar has motivated me and given me enough additional information to get me started on the right path, BUT after doing more research about FB and the costs, I decided that I will take my 25K and hold on to it for my next rehab or rental investment. I have a hard time putting my full trust into FB because I feel like I am dealing with a timeshare company that does not want you to communicate with others until you sign the dotted line. This is my opinion based off multiple things but I keep going back to the up sell they do and the fact that I was told by the advisers during the 3 day seminars they could not give me their contact information nor should we be networking with others at the seminar. It just seems to me if you have nothing to hide then let people communicate. I guess I can understand the position from FB if they are putting this together and are using their time and resources they do not want other companies or persons to take advantage and use it for their own networking interests, but when the speaker made a comment during day 1 that no one should be handing out business cards and pretty much stating the reason why is because if your are attending this seminar then you are not where you want to be / not successful so why would you be wanting to take advice from others who are attending. He suggested that you need to be listening to the seminar and a proven plan that has made people who follow the plan very wealthy and not to others. I can not disagree with the premise of what the speaker was saying but from a consumer perspective there is value in communicating with others who might be considering purchasing the same product you are thinking about purchasing. I do not feel it is FB right to squash that freedom to reach out to others who are in similar industries and mindsets. Like others have stated, its not the question whether or not you would be successful by purchasing the mastery program, to me it comes down to could you be successful in the same time frame by utilizing other tools at a lessor cost. I am going with the latter and saying yes.
Hi everybody.
As a complete newbie to Real Estate Investing, and eager to get into it, my mom actually took me to the 3-day Fortune Builder's seminar.
I wanted to leave a comment here so that someone else who may be researching this company, as I was doing, can get another perspective on the topic.
After attending the 1st day of Fortune Builder's 3-day seminar, I went online to find some reviews on Fortune Builder's. On Google the 2nd non-fortune builder site was this one, and with this topic. The first thing that I read was actually Marie K.'s post.
To begin with, I had NO idea that this seminar was about their mastery program which costs $25,000. Alarm bells went off in my head, because on that 1st day there was barely any mention of this. There was one slide about some mastery program and one-on-one coaching and if you'd like to get interviewed about joining their "team" you can apply before you leave. All in all there was maybe a whole 5 minutes dedicated to their "program" and everything else was, what seemed to me, some good valid information.
The next morning the speaker shifted to, what I would call the "sales pitch" part of the seminar. There were still a few tips and tricks he gave out, but most of the presentation, like 85%, was about their program!
At that exact time, MY perspective changed 180 degrees. Suddenly, everything made sense. Especially since I already knew what was coming; the shocking price tag.
But it wasn't just about the price of it; it was the way in which it was all presented.
I just wanted to give the person who is about to go to one of these seminars a fair warning and things to look out for...
They will tell you to "clear your cup" - i.e. disregard any preconceived notions about real estate and becoming an entrepreneur in general. What that really means is 'don't think critically'/'let your guard down'.
They will say things like "Naysayers will tell you, Oh I don't have the money to start investing right now. Well, let me ask you this; how many people here have upped their credit card limit before? How EASY is it? How long did it take you? A phone call? 5 minutes?! That's like FREE MONEY!" (He literally said that.) "That's RIDICULOUS! You know you can invest in real estate for a very, very small amount and get a 20% ROI! Making that initial money you borrowed, FREE!". Now, that to me sounds like a huge risk, but even if it is somewhat, somehow plausible, and possible then okay, that's one thing. But the REAL motive behind that is not for you to invest in a property, it's for you to up your credit limit to say, oh, I don't know, $25,000? and then 'invest' it with them because you will get that money back within your first 6 months *no guarantees*.
To quote the speaker: "We really believe in transparency and, you know, Than always told me to be honest and up front with people. Tell them what you are about and what is going on here. Our business is in it for making a profit." Except that the seminar wasn't transparent from day 1, they weren't clear and up front about what they were selling!
Speaker: "It is absolutely critical that you understand the URGENCY involved in Real Estate Investing. You need to know when there is a good deal presented and you need to act on it... when?"
Crowd: "NOW!"
While that is true in real estate, the purpose behind it was intended for you to act on the deal they will be presenting to you, quickly!
All the posters around the room read "take action now.", "now is the time to change.", "to become successful you must take action!". Sure, great motivational messages, but motivating you to do what? Take action now and BUY into their program, now!
They attempt to cover up that fact by their "interviews" and making it "exclusive", only for the "select few who qualify". "You know, Fortune Builder's is looking for the investor mindset individual and not a consumer. And one of the things they look for is someone who is willing to take action and full responsibility even when they fail!" What that means is, should their program fail you, you take full responsibility, because after all, you were the one not putting in enough work. If you are that type of individual, then you are perfect for them. The ironical thing about that is if you ARE putting in enough work, of course you will succeed, and would have anyway, regardless of the program. The program they sell implies that it will accelerate you to your success, essentially get rich quick, all the while he says "there are no shortcuts to success". So, the person who will qualify for their program will have to accept that "there are no shortcuts to success" so that when their program fails to accelerate them FB can say "well, hey look, we already said there are no shortcuts to success.".
An example he gave was how Tim Horton's runs a franchise and Sally's Coffee is run by a Technician type of individual who wants to do all the work themselves. Again, I can see the logic in not doing all the work yourself because you will be too busy working in other areas, doing other deals. But then he goes on to say you will have so much free time! He contradicts himself by implying that you will see instant success, and defining that success as free time to do whatever you want, and saying that it takes a lot of hard work to become successful.
There are so many contradicting things the speaker said too. "You know what the definition of insanity is right? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Only what's more insane is people doing what someone else is doing, seeing the other person failing, yet still expecting a different result! What you need to do to succeed is follow the right path, follow the people who have done it, proven it and succeeded themselves!" And then saying "But you have to be different. You have to be an unrealistic to achieve your goals!" Although all these motivational speeches are true in their own sense, it was all twisted in a way to convince you into buying their program.
The slides about making decisions. "Successful people who make money, make decisions. If you want to be successful, make a lot of decisions, all the time." While this is true in its own way, what they also wanted to indoctrinate is that soon you will have to make a decision (i.e. when you get offered their program) and to make money, you should make the right decision (i.e. joining it). Also, as a side note, I noticed that the speaker waving his hand towards the green/money side of the slide behind him every time he said "make a decision". Admittedly I may be looking into it a little too deeply at this point.
Something strange happened on the 1st day as well. At one point one person in the crowd spoke up and disagreed with a statistic that the speaker gave, and the speaker choked up! It was about "how long does it take for the average person to sell their home, on average? It takes 60-90 days". A real estate agent in the crowd said "No, actually it's different in this market....". And before she finished he just sort of shut her down and said "No, no, you don't understand, I mean from the closing day of the deal.". She spoke up again and I couldn't really hear what she said but the speaker got all nervous, sort of chuckled or something, went quiet and went for his cup of water. We were all awkwardly quiet, a few people were kind of chuckling at him. Personally I felt embarrassed for the guy because clearly he got caught off guard. I didn't make much of it until the next day, when I found asking myself why he was 'on guard' in the first place?
We ended up leaving on the 2nd day of the seminar basically right after the prices were revealed. Funny enough the last slide that I saw said at the bottom "don't leave". Which made me want to RUN!
Yesterday was the 2nd day of the seminar, and today instead of being there I'm writing here after joining BP. Last night I actually felt sick to my stomach about the whole thing. Mainly because I was thinking to myself what kind of suckers buy into this stuff? Before I said anything my mom says to me "you know, if I had the money I would definitely buy their program". After I told her my thoughts on it she said "don't be so negative about it.". Which scared me further because that's what the speaker said on day 1!
To me, from my perspective, the mastery program is a sham. I know some people will say 'you can't judge a book by it's cover', but guess what, a picture says a thousand words. And I got the picture loud and clear. With that said though, I would still recommend this seminar to newbies because it is a good starting point. For $200, I found that the information given on the 1st day was worth it for 2 people. I would advise you though, and hopefully you are reading this before you go in; go there knowing what THEIR motive is, what to look for and what to look out for. Once you know their motive it's easy to spot out the good valid information that they actually do give you. Take the bait, but don't get hooked! After all, I did find out about this site because of FB!
Anyway, I'm sorry about this really, really long post but I do hope that someone finds it useful!
Cheers
@Bojan Kovacevic Thanks so much for your sharing your experience.
I'm curious about your mother's response. After Day 2 you say she was ready/willing to spend the big bucks on the program. Normally I would say to each to their own. Different things appeal to different people. But the part where she said you were being "negative" really got my attention. I think FB really knows how to play on that to their advantage. The shallower parts of new-age thinking and teaching preaches that negativity is what is holding people back. I think there is a difference between negativity and critical thinking (aka "leave your intelligence at home but don't forget your credit card").
I suggest getting familiar with different REI strategies and the markets you'd like to work in. And then revisit the issue with your mother when you have an action plan. IMO, if she was willing to give money to FB, she should be willing to put it towards an actual investment.
I'm bummed to learn that FB encourages/promotes credit card limit increases in order to afford their fees. I'd heard about it before, but assumed it was overstated by disgruntled attendees. At least when you are borrowing from HMLS and paying high interest you own the collateral. Encouraging unsecured, high interest debt for those new to REI just seems sleazy.
FB has made their second trek through Rochester, NY in the last year. The FB Mastery students are making their way to the local REIA events after the most recent event and they all state that they are ready to start learning about REI...isn't that what the Mastery course is supposed to teach you?
When one of the students asked "How do I get started? What are the steps for a wholesale deal?" it raised some red flags to me that they may not be getting true actionable skills in the classes. Also hearing "I'm just going to post some ads on craigslist and I'll have a deal" wasn't recognizing the well established investors marketing plans in our area and the potential futility of this approach.
The first time FB came through Rochester we had a similar swell in attendance at the REIA events, and after 6 months I don't know of any attendees that stayed with the REIA. Hopefully they are out doing deals with their knowledge, but I am equally afraid that FB got their money, gave them a bunch of systems that overwhelmed them, and after learning how difficult it is to find deals (where the true education is needed for an investor) they gave up.
Personally I think the $15-25k could pay for a lot of networking steak dinners with investors in a particular area and along with BP could give great actionable learning. I want these investors to succeed, but for those considering it in the future, take a close look at the posts above and go to your local REIA and start offering to buy some steaks...
You can review all the podcasts on this forumn several times and be ahead of the game. You can also go on YouTube and select some free videos and watch them and buy youself a case of wine and you will be well ahead of the game. The $25,000. would be better off spent on a vacation or as an investment in local real estate or a crowd funding investment. Not a legal opinion, just food for thought. The forum is not anti coaching just anti costly expenditures.